I just heard from an extremely reliable source here in LA that the LA office is closing as we speak. Wow!
I will check on that with a friend that trades thru there too. Based on what he told me in the past I would not be shocked by this. From what I heard most of the traders they had in that office were the traders that blew out their accts and it was a refuge of last resort for them. Most were doing the no commission get payed on gross plans.
As an update to this I talked to my friend who trades in the LA office and they are shutting it down along with a couple more of their offices -- I think he said Houston and Chicago but I am not entirely sure on that. I still can't figure out why they were spending money buying firms like Broadway and what benefit they would get from that.
They are not really buying anything --- just trying to acquire more customer traders and still scaling down the prop traders ---
Do you know what the ultimate goal is for the firm? Are they looking to completely phase out the prop side of the business just keeping existing traders and not hiring new traders or are they looking to have a half and half business model? I heard that the NY offices are still doing OK numbers but don't have first hand knowledge on that.
Do not think the plan is to totally eliminate the prop side -- just to add customers to help ease the pain !!!
There is a rumor I heard from a Schoney trader in NY that Schoney has lost over $30 million this year as a firm and Steve is threatening to shut the entire operation. He is acquiring customers to help lower the per share cost of his clearing operation. I think Steve didn't get the e-mail that momentum is dead.